


Echoes

by Riona



Category: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni | Higurashi When They Cry
Genre: F/M, Keiichi crying, no spoilers past Tsumihoroboshi, that's important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-10 00:27:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18649204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riona/pseuds/Riona
Summary: Keiichi is haunted by memories of things that never happened.





	Echoes

**Author's Note:**

> I've been itching to write a fic about Keiichi being haunted by memories of different timelines for a while; I'm glad I've finally managed it!
> 
> As a note, I'm playing along with the Steam release, so I'm only up to _Tsumihoroboshi_ (which was _incredible_ ); please don't mention anything that happens later!

There are a handful of pupils in Keiichi’s new class who really stand out to him. It’s kind of hard to explain. They just draw his eye. He wants to go over and introduce himself to them. Or – actually, it’s more like he wants to go over and fall straight into joking with them like they see each other every day, because it feels like he’s friends with them already, it feels like he’s known them all his life.

And another part of him wants to run away, because it feels like something really, really bad is going to happen.

“Hey, new kid! Come sit over here!”

It’s terrifying and thrilling to realise that one of those girls is _talking_ to him. It’s the class president, the one with the ponytail. The teacher mentioned that her name was Sonozaki-san. It was so familiar when Keiichi heard it: _yes, that’s her name_.

“Keiichi Maebara, right?” she asks, as he approaches the desks she and her friends have pushed together. “From the Maebara manor? I’m gonna call you Kei-chan.”

He laughs. It’s so forward, but it feels right somehow. “Hey, Mion.”

“Oh!” She grins wickedly, the light of challenge gleaming in her eyes. “The new boy has done his research! As it happens, we have a club where we understand the value of knowing your enemy.”

Now that she mentions it... how _does_ he know her first name?

-

“Are you busy today, I wonder? ...I wonder?”

“Never too busy for you, Rena,” Keiichi says, just to see her blush. He probably shouldn’t tease her so much, but it’s so _easy_.

Plus Mion teases _him_ all the time, so he has the right to pass the embarrassment on to someone else, right? That’s how it works.

“I – I—” Rena has to pause and flap her hands for a moment to calm herself down (victory!). “There was somewhere I wanted to go, and – and I was wondering if you would – I mean, it’s not – n-not a _date_ , but—”

“The dam construction site, right?” Keiichi asks, taking pity on her. Something about that place makes him uneasy, but if Rena wants to go... “Yeah, I’ll help.”

“Ah, you’ve been before?”

“What are you talking about? You’re the one who took me there in the first place. When you found Colonel Sanders, remember?” And when Keiichi met...

Who did he meet?

Rena is frowning at him. “Are you sure? Rena doesn’t remember.”

“You don’t remember our first date?” Keiichi asks, pressing a hand to his chest. “I’m crushed.”

“A-are you making things up to tease me, I wonder?”

She really _doesn’t_ remember? Is that normal? It can’t have been that long ago; he’s only been here a few weeks.

Maybe it’s just Rena. She _is_ pretty weird. And his own memories seem weirdly blurred, considering how recent their trip must have been; maybe he’s confusing it with somewhere else?

-

He’s definitely been here before. It looks exactly as he remembers it in the evening light, casting strange jagged shadows. Under the warm, golden sky, it’s oddly picturesque for a pile of trash.

It looks _exactly_ as he remembers it. You’d expect the outline to change as more stuff got dumped here, but...

And he remembers Rena being here with him, he _knows_ he does. Why would she say she doesn’t remember?

Rena goes prancing up the slope like a mountain goat. (It’s all so familiar.) Keiichi follows. He remembers struggling to climb the heap the first time he was here, so he made sure to change into trainers today. He wouldn’t have known to do that if he’d never been, right?

It somehow all seems so right, so familiar, that it’s starting to feel wrong.

“Ah! Colonel Sanders!”

“What?” Keiichi asks, wiping the back of his hand across his forehead.

“Colonel Sanders!” Rena is pointing at...

At exactly the place Keiichi _remembers_ Colonel Sanders being.

“You mentioned him, didn’t you, Keiichi-kun?” Rena asks. “You knew he would be here? How? How?”

It’s the weirdest déjà vu. Someone dumped a _second_ life-size Colonel Sanders figure here? It’s not as thoroughly buried as the first, but—

But it’s in the same pose, it’s in the same place, and Keiichi never actually saw it on _this_ visit, did he? He couldn’t make it up the slope. That’s why he’s here in different shoes.

What’s going on in his head? His thoughts are _almost_ making sense, but he can’t piece them together.

“He’s so cute,” Rena whispers, gazing at Colonel Sanders. “I want to take him home with me.”

-

It’s just Keiichi and Mion walking home from school today. Rena’s at the construction site again. She invited Keiichi to go along, but he couldn’t do it; he’s still not sure what happened last time, exactly, but he knows he’s not comfortable in that place.

They reach the point where they usually split off from each other, and he gives Mion a quick kiss and an awkward grin. “See you tomorrow?”

“K- _Kei-chan!_ ” Mion snaps in a near-whisper. “What are you – did you just...?”

She’s scarlet; she looks furiously embarrassed. Keiichi has to laugh; it’s funny to see her so thrown when she’s always the one in control. “What’s wrong, Mion?”

Mion narrows her eyes. “Oh, this is a game, is it? I’m warning you, I won’t back down.”

“You’re my girlfriend, aren’t you? It’s not like it’s the first time we—”

Wait.

“I’m your _what_?” Mion demands.

Mion isn’t his girlfriend. They’ve never done this before. Why did he think...

Holy crap, did he seriously just kiss her like it was a normal thing? He’s never kissed her before! He’s never kissed _anyone_ before!

Keiichi buries his face in his hands and tries very hard not to physically burst into flames.

“Ha!” Mion crows. “I knew it! You’re more embarrassed than I am! I win!”

How did this _happen_?

-

He remembers Mion kissing him in a quiet moment, and both of them getting nervous and embarrassed, until they made it a competition – _whoever does the most dramatic shoujo-manga love confession with a straight face wins_ – and both got way too into it.

He remembers crying, kneeling at Rena’s feet.

He remembers looking at Satoko and thinking _that’s my sister, I won’t let anyone hurt her,_ in a quiet, clear voice.

He remembers Rika, and crows, and someone screaming.

He remembers the weight of a baseball bat in his hand.

-

Keiichi wakes with his futon soaked with sweat, his hair plastered to the back of his neck. His heart’s hammering against his chest like he’s just been running. He was asleep?

Are his—

Are his friends okay? He feels like... he feels like something terrible happened, but—

He can’t remember. He kissed Mion, he remembers that, that was a _disaster_ , she’ll never let him live it down, but – but he’ll be so, so thankful if that turns out to be the worst thing he has to deal with.

He feels like he’s standing on the brink of a chasm, and he can’t look down, and he doesn’t know whether it’s in front of him or behind him or to the side. If he takes a step in any direction, he might fall.

He’s afraid to get up, to go out into the day. He doesn’t know what’s waiting for him there.

-

“You seem pretty out of it, Kei-chan,” Mion says.

“You think so too?” Rena asks.

He’s falling. He’s drowning.

Mion smirks over at him. “If you don’t wake up, you are _definitely_ gonna lose at club today.”

There’s blood on his face and blood on his shirt and he keeps swinging down the baseball bat, again and again and again and again and again and again and again.

No, he’s – _no_. He’s walking to school, with his friends, amidst the chirping of insects, and it’s a normal day.

He stops walking. “Guys?”

“Hm?” Mion asks, turning around, a couple of paces ahead. Rena pauses next to Keiichi.

“You’re... here, right?” Keiichi asks. “We’re all here? We’re real?”

“You’re asking questions like that _now?_ ” Mion asks. “I’m not going to talk philosophy when I’ve only just woken up.”

“Are you okay?” Rena asks, frowning anxiously at Keiichi.

“I...” His throat feels tight. To his mild horror, he can feel tears coming on, right now, in front of Mion. “I don’t know.”

Mion must be able to hear the strain in his voice, but she doesn’t mock him. She’s actually starting to look worried. Is that better? It feels like it might be worse.

He half-reaches out his hands towards them. He’s not sure what he’s trying to do. He’s a little afraid he’ll just look like he’s trying to grope them.

But Rena takes one of his hands, and Mion closes the space between them and clasps the other in both of hers.

“Hey, Kei-chan,” Mion says, quietly. “We’re here.”

He actually does start to cry. His legs kind of give way, and he ends up on his knees on the side of the road, barely aware of falling. Rena and Mion are crouched around him, still holding on to his hands, close enough for him to feel their warmth.

Here, he tells himself, and alive, no matter how hard it’s suddenly become to believe it.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he says, half a whisper. “I’m just... I’m so scared.”

“We’ll be okay,” Rena murmurs.

“We _won’t_ ,” he says, his voice breaking as he looks up at her. He doesn’t know what’s happening, but he knows, in his gut, in the back of his head, he _knows_ they won’t be okay. “Not for long.”

Rena hesitates. He thinks she might believe him.

“Then we’ll be okay for a little while,” she says.

She and Mion shift closer, and the three of them curl into each other, holding each other by the side of the road, until Keiichi starts to feel like he can breathe again.


End file.
